Susan Vanderplas

Unicorn spinosaurus!!

The Minneapolis Resistance Will Do Your Laundry From free airline miles to washing clothes, Minnesotans are keeping each other safe from ICE—and leaving a blueprint for the rest of us.

I hadn't cried about how much I love Minneapolis in a few days, so this was a good one to read:

"Minnesotans will continue to keep Minnesotans safe until we rid the state of the federal occupation, just like lake ice is weakened by springtime sunshine and subsumed by the water below."

There are many depressing things about academic work but perhaps one the worst is being told by management that even your individual/collective successes are bad and wrong. #AcademicSky

Why can't Schumer and Jeffries sound like this?

(rhetorical)

Members-only Philly cop bar has been linked to two DUIs — and a third crash kept secret, until now Anna Wakeman still questions why 7C Lounge bartenders didn’t stop serving the officer who crashed into her house and upended her life five years ago.

"The cops can drink as much as they want there...The bartenders serve them till they're blackout drunk and let them leave." Quote from a woman who was hit by a drunk-driving cop *while sitting in her living room.* This story from the @inquirer.com is a hell of a thing. share.inquirer.com/yynTQX

NSF defunding in Social, Behavioral, and Social Sciences

"Racists ain't safe 'round this holler" t shirt sold by Screwston Antifascist Committee

"Bodily autonomy for all by any means necessary" t shirt sold by Screwston Antifascist Committee

"Racists ain't safe in the dirty south" t shirt sold by Screwston Antifascist Committee

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is targeting Screwston Antifascist Committee, calling them "deranged traitors".

They've got some pretty cool shirts for sale on their website
screwstonafc.shop

ICE drawdown? Indications point to steady enforcement activity outside the Twin Cities Some people who observe ICE activity are skeptical about a large scale drawdown of agents in the state. There are indications that activity has decreased in the Twin Cities, but has continued outside ...

Two female ICE agents popped the hood of their car and knocked on the door of a mechanic born in Mexico. He went out to help.

“A bunch of agents jump out and tackle him, essentially restraining him, and take him away...His six kids are now without their father." www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Yes

Fox graphic of the "TOP 10 STATES WITH HIGHEST ELECTRICITY PRICES" featuring DC as number 10

congrats to DC on achieving statehood

I'm so excited for you! That's a great department and you will have an awesome vis collaborator in Emily Robinson!!

Me, smiling and taking a selfie on a sunny day in front of the large-lettered CAL POLY sign.

Big announcement! I have accepted a tenure-track faculty position as an "assistant professor of data science" at Cal Poly in SLO, starting this Fall!! 🎉

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

Two survival curves. One ('late') goes all the way down, the other ('early') stays well above it all the way and bottoms out at like 30%

This is just nuts.
In a well-powered randomised trial, giving immunotherapy in the morning rather than afternoon/evening produced ludicrously big improvements in progression-free survival
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
via
www.science.org/content/blog...

The Transformative Power of the White ‘Race Traitor’

"The first person to be executed for treason in the US was not a spy or someone who sold secrets to a foreign government. It was not a Confederate general who took up arms against his government. It was an abolitionist named John Brown." from @nhannahjones.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/m...

I saw a live birthed harbor seal pup for the first time in my life today. I thought it would be horrifying because I have a weak stomach, but it turned to UNGODLY CUTE very fast!

Using this thread for some moments in the minutes after. All shot on my z8, edited on phone for now. 🦭 🦑

Stop Palantir taking over our public services! Our public services aren’t for a secretive profit-hungry US tech firm. Sign the petition to tell the Government to scrap all contracts with secretive US tech firm Palantir.

Palantir, a US spy-tech firm, has been given access to millions of NHS patient records.

Its founder has said the NHS should be 'ripped up'.

Join me in calling on the government to end the dangerous Palantir contract.

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Do you also snicker every time you say that out loud?

"Moderna's CEO announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases: 'You cannot make a return on investment if you don't have access to the U.S. market. Vaccines for Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and shingles have been shelved.” 9:12 AM Feb 12, 2026 604.8K Views

In terms of what cures are being lost:

- Epstein-Barr virus is perhaps the major trigger for multiple sclerosis
- herpes simplex virus causes cold sores, genital herpes, infections in babies, deadly meningitis
- shingles virus causes an intensely painful disease

Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

A medieval illustration of a hedgehog with grapes skewered on its spines

It was believed in medieval times that hedgehogs had spikes so they could roll over fruit to carry home to their children, which is not true but is a really cute idea

'DOJ Removes All Mention Of Justice From Website' Headline T-Shirt

Make your money proud for once. https://store.theonion.com/products/doj-removes-all-mention-of-justice-from-website-headline-t-shirt?variant=44632294588485

I always loved Obama's response of "that was kind of the point" when someone asked if he inhaled. 😂

It's frustrating that so many development tools and platform instructions now start with "Step 1: Run a python script to launch a web server."

Opinion | Universities are sending Trump a dangerous message Higher education is under attack. Drop the appeasement.

Accommodation does not moderate authoritarian regimes, it emboldens them.

An important reminder that college and university leaders must fight to protect our democracy and intellectual freedom on college campuses. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

this is a level of complicity that had not occurred to me

Sorry,but this is just false. Even when women and non-whites had the right to vote, many states have worked to make it hard on the minority party to vote. We've had election integrity issues forever, but the magnitude and the blatant manipulation in the press are, perhaps, new.

When we get out the other side of this, we should think seriously about making signs like this permanent, like the plaques in Paris that tell you that you're standing on the exact spot where a resistance fighter was shot down by the Nazis in 1944.

It isn't an empty gesture, it may not do anything now, but it's a signal to history, and to the world and to ourselves, that this is not ok.

One of every thousand American residents has been taken into custody by ICE in the last year.